A sixth-form student in Oxfordshire has criticised the A-level history curriculum for presenting a skewed perspective on British colonial history. Astrid Barltrop, winner of The Guardian Foundation’s 2026 Emerging Voices award, argues that the current syllabus fails to challenge the principle of colonialism and instead focuses on the efficiency of British rule.
Barltrop highlights an essay prompt from her Edexcel module on Britain’s empire, which asked: “Lord Cromer was a successful consul-general of Egypt. To what extent do you agree?” She notes that while she could argue against his success by focusing on his impact on Egyptians, the question still assumes colonial rulers can be successful for a population. She calls for a shift towards questioning the right to rule itself.
The student points to other omissions, such as the absence of the 1770 Great Bengal famine—which killed 10 million people—from the specification on the 1857 Indian uprising. Instead, students study the strengths and weaknesses of British governor generals. Barltrop argues that this selective amnesia harms British identity by excluding the perspectives of colonised peoples and their descendants in the classroom.
She contrasts Britain’s approach with Germany’s Vergangenheitsbewältigung, or working-off of the past, which has strengthened the country through honest reckoning with the Holocaust. Barltrop concludes that teaching the uncomfortable truths of empire is necessary to end harmful ideas about race and migration, quoting the late scholar Ambalavaner Sivanandan: “We are here because you were there.”
